North Carolina State UniversityThe Friday InstituteNCSU College of EducationNCSU NELA Project Hompage
Strategic Leadership

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School executives will create conditions that result in strategically re-imaging the school’s vision, mission, and goals in the 21st century. Understanding that schools ideally prepare students for an unseen but not altogether unpredictable future, the leader creates a climate of inquiry that challenges the school community to continually re-purpose itself by building on its core values and beliefs about its preferred future and then developing a pathway to reach it.

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1a. School Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals: The school’s identity, in part, is derived from the vision, mission, values, beliefs and goals of the school, the processes used to establish these attributes, and the ways they are embodied in the life of the school community.

Internship Activities

  • Created and revised personal vision statement
  • Letter of introduction to staff with personal vision statement incorporated
  • Facilitated meetings with teachers and School Improvement Team on school’s vision, mission and strategic goals at Clara Hearne Early Childhood Center
  • As part of Problem of Practice, evaluated and discussed of Teacher Working Conditions Survey, including comparison of Hollister Elementary with other schools.

Coursework

  • DLP assignment required collaborative collection and rating of internship school vision and mission with mentor principal and select teachers, fall 2011.
  • DLP: In-depth discussion of mission and vision through Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP) program, fall 2011.
  • DLP: assignment required collaborative collection and rating of Hollister Elementary Schools vision and mission with mentor principal and select teachers, fall 2011.
  • DLP: Applied the PDCA cycle to study the processes used to establish vision and mission in the school, fall 2011
  • Change Course: Training on the Teacher Working Condition (TWC) survey included examination of vision and mission constructs, fall 2011.
  • Change Course: Through Vision Statement Assignment, developed and shared a personal vision that reflected high expectations for student achievement, fall 2011
  • On-Going Leadership Course:With Self Assessment assignments, fellow made continual changes to personal goals that reflected feedback data to improve performance.
  • Social Justice Course:"I Am From" Poem
  • School/District Digital Story
  • Leadership Digital Story
  • Specialized Training:NC "Turnaround" High School Visit. Reflection can be found on artifacts page.
  • Specialized Training: Certified training of Schooling by Design included protocols for articulating mission and vision regularly and incorporating them into the daily operation of the school, fall 2011
  • Specialized Training: Certified training on Facilitative Leadership, including specific training on sharing a compelling vision, having maximum appropriate involvement and building consensus, December 2010.
  • Human Resources Course: Reading, written discussion and wrap-around application (apply-discuss-revise-repeat) of chapters on how to win people to a way of thinking and alter perception without offense from How to Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie, 1981), January-May 2011
  • Human Resources Class: Reading, discussing and continued implementation of vision setting and synergy skills from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, (Covey, 1987) July 2010-May 2011
  • Specialized Training: Site visit: AB Combs Elementary, Magnet School of Distinction with exemplary school culture.
  • NC "Turnaround" High School Visit-Bunn High School, Franklin County, North Carolina


Artifacts and Documentations


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Hollister Culture Indicators


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Hollister Culture Indicators page 3



1b. Leading Change: The school executive articulates a vision, and implementation strategies, for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
Internship Activities
  • Internship weekly logs included reflection on new and better ways I could lead to improve student achievement, specifically core instructional practices.
  • Monthly internship logs included the identification of particular standards and competencies for growth, 2011-2012.
  • Internship project included data audit of current resources and achievement, identification of a problem of practice and developing a theory of action to create and monitor the effectiveness of strategies, fall 2011 (Phase IV).
  • Analyzed Teacher Working Condition (TWC) survey for Distinguished Leaders in Practice (DLP) program.
  • Worked with School Improvement Team to revise strategies and create new initiatives to improve achievement for all students (at Clara Hearne Early Childhood Center), fall 2011.


Coursework
  • Introductory Letter
  • Fall 2011 Assessment Day School Culture Video
  • Facilitative Leadership
  • Crucial Conversations
  • Problem of Practice Phase #4
  • Certified training of Schooling by Design included plans for collaboratively creating strategies to improve learning outcomes, fall 2011.
  • Read, discussed and presented on selected passages from Leading Change (Kotter, 2006) and Leading in a Culture of Change (Fullan, 2001).
  • Weekly reflection, feedback and monthly conferences with coach included practical discussion and coaching on leading change, fall 2011.
  • Certified training by Ruby Payne: Raising Achievement with 9 Systemic Processes, including concrete strategies for creating new school processes, March 2011
  • Certified training on Facilitative Leadership, including specific training on sharing a compelling vision, having maximum appropriate involvement and building consensus, December 2010.
  • Read, discussed and wrote summary for The Bell Curve article on using data to drive decisions, spring 2010.
  • Read, discussed and wrote summary for Tipping Point Leadership, including analysis of spearheading effective and systemic change, (Kim & Mauborgne, 2003) May 2011
  • Reading and discussion of Why Transformations Efforts Fail, (Kotter, 1995), March 2011

Related Readings
  • Bolman & Deal
  • Leading Change by Carter
  • 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders
  • Tinkering Towards Utopia
  • Trust Matters
  • Cultural Change
  • Dale Carnege
  • Crucial Conversations
  • The School Leaders our Children Deserve
  • Leading in a Culture of Change


Artifacts
Culture Story
DLP1-2
  • Screen_shot_2012-04-22_at_12.17.31_PM.png
    Interviews for Internship project


1c. School Improvement Plan: The school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision, values, goals and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.

Internship Activities

  • Served on School Improvement Team; attended meetings
  • Assisted in the development of the School Improvement Plan
  • Attended PLC Meetings
  • Weekly internship logs included reflection on facilitating School Improvement meetings and work with the SIT, fall 2011.
  • Analyzed Teacher Working Condition (TWC) survey for Distinguished Leaders in Practice (DLP) program. With a teacher, Hollister was compared against state, district and grade-level state averages, as well as performance from previous years.

Coursework
  • DLP #1 (PDCA) Cycle
  • DLP sessions incorporated interim assignments involving analysis of Hollister’s mission, vision, values and goals within the SIT, then build consensus about steps needed to take in order to improve them for increased student achievement.
  • Problem of Practice Phase #2
  • Change sessions with Drs. Joe Peel and Cathy Williams included description and discussion of successful SIT attributes.
  • Distinguished Leadership in Practice Training (PDCA cycle) and analysis of SIP and comparison with plans from other LEAs
  • Class investigation with Dr. Cathy Williams on creating collaborative environment.

  • Specialized Training: Certified training of Schooling by Design included protocols for articulating mission and vision regularly and incorporating them into the daily operation of the school, fall 2011
  • Specialized Training: Certified training on Facilitative Leadership, including specific training on sharing a compelling vision, having maximum appropriate involvement and building consensus, December 2010.

Related Readings
  • Schooling by Design
  • Leading in a Culture of Change by Carter


Artifacts and Documentations




1d. Distributive Leadership: The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision-making throughout the school.
Internship Activities
  • Facilitative Leadership training including specific training on coaching for performance
  • Attended PLC Meetings
  • Attended School Improvement Team Meetings

Coursework
  • Certified training on Facilitative Leadership, including implemented skills and wrap-around feedback. Skills included coaching for performance and celebrating accomplishments, December 2010
  • Worked with a team for both the school law and developmental projects required the distribution of responsibilities among group members. September 2010-May, 2011
  • Certified training on Crucial Conversations, including implemented skills and wrap-around feedback.

Related Readings
  • Dale Carnege: How to win friends and influence people
  • Trust Matters



Self Assessment 2010
The world constantly changes. Our schools need to be prepared to keep up with the changing times. The strategic leader has a vision for the school, and shares this vision with staff, students, parents and the community. The strategic leader must be an effective change manager by successfully engaging his/her staff and community to garner their full support. Marzano, Waters, and McNulty define this change agent as one who “consciously challenges the status quo, is comfortable leading change with uncertain outcomes, and systematically considers new and better ways of doing things.” This leader does not hold to the notion that we do what we’ve always done. Change is considered a good thing. Collaboration is key. The school leader takes personal responsibility for performance by continuously seeking areas of improvement and seeking feedback from others. A strategic leader knows how to delegate leadership among staff and communicates best practice effectively. The school improvement plan is an important document that guides the vision and goal setting for the school.
Assessing my strengths as strategic leader, I look at my past experiences. As a member of the school improvement team for the past two years, I have knowledge of what the school improvement plan should look like and how it is to be implemented. Our team was most successful when everyone at the table understood the vision of this guiding document. Our team tended not to want to try anything new. However, I enjoy challenging the status quo (Marzano, Waters and McNulty, 2005). It bothers me to do things as they have always been done.